Understanding Yoga Fitness

Even if you are not a regular practitioner of yoga yet you will probably find that understanding its basic background will give you a good context around why you are practicing yoga fitness and what you are doing. By understanding that yoga is not just physical positions but also a full lifestyle you'll come to appreciate its complete health benefits.

No one really knows who first developed yoga except for the fact that it seemed to have originated somewhere in the Indus Valley regions of Northern India. References to yoga first appeared in both archaeological and written references about 3000 to 5000 years ago. The first compilation of yoga practices seems to have appeared about 2200 years ago with the publication of a book called the 'Yoga Sutras' by Patanjali.

The Yoga Sutras are a compilation of 196 principles about the practice and philosophy of yoga that are meant to be memorized and incorporated into one's lifestyle. These principles have become to be known as the foundation of Raja Yoga - sometimes referred to as Royal Yoga with a primary focus on the mind by taming the body and enhancing the spirit.

The Raja Yoga discipline as described in the sutras is divided into eight steps - otherwise known as the eight 'limbs'. Each step focuses on aspects around lifestyle, purity, body, breathing and meditation. Here is a high level description of each:

1. Yama - abstentions for living virtuously such as truth, non-violence and continence
2. Niyama - observances and disciplines for mind and body
3. Asana - bodily postures for meditation
4. Pranayama - regulated breath and control of the life force
5. Pratyahara - sensory withdrawal of the mind from the physical world
6. Dharana - meditative concentration on an object - knowing you are meditating
7. Dhyana - meditation with no consciousness of the act of meditation
8. Samadhi - enlightenment

As you probably noticed modern yoga as it is typically practiced today is heavily influenced by steps three and four - Asana and Pranayama. Most modern yoga fitness programs are related to the practices of Hatha Yoga which is a system of physical purification to assist the meditative effects of steps five through nine. This system is comprised of a large number of bodily postures designed to develop balance, poise and strength.

The mainstream instruction of yoga includes many body positions and breathing exercises that have been found to be extremely beneficial to personal well being, fitness and health. Practiced over time yoga can become a path to improving anyone's lifestyle. By combining this practice with the additional Raja 'limbs' yoga can lead you an enlightened life change.

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Choose a Glyconutritional Supplement

What are the basics of a healthy diet? Do you get as frustrated as I do when food shopping? The choice of foods available to the people in modern America today is extremely diverse, with novel foods being developed by food technologists. Instead of making this easier for us to choose what to eat according to our instance desires at a given time, the increased selection makes it more difficult. Consequently, we deal with the huge selection, often over nine thousand various items in a major supermarket, by time and again picking only a very restrictive range of foods.

Additionally, we are more and more worried about improving our health and wish to make food choices that will help this. We are bombarded with various views to support particular dietary choices. The main choice which we have are whether to eat meat, become a vegetarian, or to choose to combine both into your diet and if so, in what proportions?

Research supports that, where food is abundant, increasing the intake of plant based food, in particular fruit and vegetable, can help to reduce the occurrence of chronic disease. However, the precise amounts of meat based and plant based food in the diet that may provide for optimal health is not possible to determine. Although research does support that diets based largely on plant foods are most associate with health and longevity.

Most of us would be unwilling to eat a new food simply because we were told it was healthy. The problem with all of this is that there is little dissimilarity in the food that forms a healthy diet and that which makes up a less healthy diet; it is the balance of parts making up the whole meal or diet that is the key.

Some foods provide only a very small range of nutrients and if these make up a large part of the daily ingestion, then we run the risk of not meeting our nutritional requirements for a variety of nutrients. Therefore, the wider the variety of foods, the less likely there are to be shortages in the nutrient intake and we will be more likely to meet our nutritional needs.

Our capability to measure how much of a food we eat relies on learned responses established in our childhood. The feeling coming from the stomach, when a specific serving size has been eaten, will be remembered and will help to establish our behavior in the future. This variability of the so-called normal serving sizes between individuals is a problem for those examining food intakes in populations. This is because there is no such thing as an average serving size, which would apply to everyone.

The best guidelines, which have been put forward, (I might add this is the way I choose to go forward) are to eat a variety of foods, enjoy your food, eat the right amount to be a healthy weight, don't eat too many sugary food, don't eat too much fat, eat plenty of foods rich in fiber and starch, keep sensible limits, and if you drink alcohol and look after the minerals and vitamins in your food. In other words, buy fresh and don't over cook. My main addition to this is to take a glyconutritional supplement to support and maintain optimal health. This really works.

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NUTRITION

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Nutritional Supplements ,Vitamins and Minerals And You By : wealthsuccess
If you eat a healthy diet or supplement your diet with nutritional supplements such as vitamins and minerals, you might not be receiving the nutrients you think you are getting.
Want A Healthier Diet? By : Steve Gink Continuous research carried out about diets all indicate the importance of having a rational and in fact accurate daily eating plan in order to stay healthy and prevent serious diseases from affecting people's health severely.Diets, including various types, can be quickly and easily adjusted by means of some tips we are going to introduce in the following lines.
Herbs and Spices to the Rescue of Your Health! (Part One) By : Scott Meyers
When we think of healing foods, we don't always consider herbs and spices. They are the little extras that we often put on our food to give it more seasoning and to make it tastier for everyone at the table.
Herbs and Spices to the Rescue of Your Health! (Part Two) By : Scott Meyers
There are many herbs and spices that are beneficial to keeping the body functioning at its absolute best. In order to remain as healthy as possible, you should consume as many herbs and spices as possible every day.able.wing lines.inerals, you might not be receiving the nutrients you think you are getting.
Follow the Basics of a Healthy Diet to Reduce Health Risks By : Jude Wright
Most Americans are aware of the fact that they should make changes in their diet will lower the risk of chronic disease. Scientists estimate that 40 percent of all cancer in men, and 60 percent in women, is related to their diet.

Understanding Yoga Fitness

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The Purpose of Yoga - Creating a New Reality

Yoga teachers often discuss subjects such as self-realization and transformation in great depth, but where does the average Yoga student start this journey? How can we take control of our lives? How can we design a life plan, which gives us direction, purpose, and meaning every day?

Let's look at where to start first. Designing a list of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly objectives, which are realistic, will give us direction. This method always works, because a list is hard to avoid, and the objectives become embedded in your subconscious mind. Writing your aspirations, goals, and objectives, down is a contract with the "witness" within you.

When a day goes by without daily objectives, it is usually an unproductive day. This is fine, if we are supposed to relax on vacation. All of us need healthy down time, but some of us are on down time every day.

How does this happen? In general, people are just not pro-active. If you practice Yoga for a few years, you start to become pro-active about every aspect of life. Your diet, posture, exercise, breathing, meditation, and prayer time have all changed. The result is a new reality and a healthy perspective of life.

If you are just starting to practice Yoga, you will need to design a list, but I must admit a list of long, and short-term objectives, does make life a lot more productive.

No matter how much drive and ambition you have, the direction you travel in should be designed to make the best use of your time. The time spent planning will actually prevent mistakes and help you to avoid wasting time.

Therefore, you should review your list of objectives daily. Take the time to do some soul searching, when you write your list. Here are some questions to consider.

Can you design smaller and measurable goals? Are your objectives ethical and positive? What are your unique life skills? Can you visualize the outcome of your objectives? How much control do you have to determine the future?

It is important for you to reflect on these questions, because you can carve out your own path in life, with your vision. This is a Yogic exercise in self-realization and transformation.

Whatever you do; your ideas must be your own. You can listen to good advice, but you cannot live your life trying to complete another person's vision of what your life should be.

Lastly, it is wise to have a Spiritual leader, Yoga teacher, Swami, Guru, mentor, consultant, coach, relative, or a trusted friend, as a confidant. This must be someone, with integrity, who inspires you to succeed in life.

He or she will not be difficult to find, because you will easily feel and see the positive energy in this person's speech, behavior, actions, and gestures. All of us need some guidance from someone who sincerely cares about us.

Copyright 2007 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

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Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. www.yoga-teacher-training.org